Book Recommendation: Let Your Life Speak
Name of Book: Let Your Life Speak
Author: Parker J. Palmer
What’s the “Big Idea”?
In Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer, author and educator, shows us that we can act from our true identity by listening to our life as opposed to telling our life what we will do with it. The same goes for our truths and values. To live as a creation of God and find our intended vocation, we should let our life tell us what truths we embody instead of us telling our life what truths and values we should live by. This is often contradictory to what we are taught. But Palmer points out that this kind of moralism can lead us to do what is right but for the wrong reasons.
A result of this is that we end up losing our way, leaving us feeling weak and faithless. Before we get to the light, the place where we live our true identity, we have to stumble through the darkness, the time when we face and accept our limits. According to Palmer, there are five shadows that we should explore in our journey into the light. Palmer also compares these journeys to the seasons in the year and their role in overcoming our shadows and seeing the new life that lies before us.
Palmer shares points in his life when he went through the darkness and how he arrived at the place of light he now lives in. He shares that in the darkness, we have to overcome fear and look closely at ourselves and our liabilities. This puts more demand on us to live as our true selves, to live according to God’s will. “I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Therefore, choose life.” – Deuteronomy 30:19
Why It Matters to Our Life, Work, and Leadership
Coming to know our true vocation as those made in the image of God enables us to be a gift to others. By no longer acting in a way that contradicts our true selves, we become the person who can add to the lives of others, not take away from them. We thrive in our roles and relationships when we are living the truth of who God made us to be. When we are not, we lose our way. This is when leaders can feel depleted, and relationships can suffer. To get to the truth, we may have to get rid of limitations, which means one way will have to close. But we then open a new way based on our true identity. Since we live in a community, we are all called to lead and follow. When we are participating as our true selves, we are not projecting our darkness and we are able to support one another and bring about the best in each other.
Favorite Quotes
- “The life I am living is not the same as the life that wants to live in me.”
- “Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening.”
- “My life is not only about my strengths and virtues; it is also about my liabilities and limits.”
- “The deepest vocational question is not ‘What ought I do with my life?’ It is the more elemental and demanding ‘Who am I? What is my nature?’”
- “Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on this earth to offer others.”
- “If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials.”
Trish Swords
Administrative Coordinator
Trish Swords brings years of administrative experience to her position as administrative coordinator at the Max De Pree Center for Leadership. For over two decades, Trish has fine tuned her administration and operations skills in the entertainment industry and has extensively served her church...